Archive for May, 2013

Anand won his maiden World title in Teheran in 2000 and has successfully defended it four times, in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Yes, he should have got a chance to defend his title at home much earlier than this, but the chess administrators of this country were not bothered about it, as he played the World championship finals in Mexico, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia. By P. K. Ajith Kumar.

When Viswanathan Anand comes to Chennai in the latter part of this year from his base in Spain, it will not be just another homecoming. This time around, his visit would not just be all about spending time with his parents and relatives and catching up with old friends. There would also be this little matter of defending a World title.

From November 6 to 26, Anand, the reigning World champion, will compete with Norway’s Magnus Carlsen for the ultimate crown in chess. Though he has played several finals of the World championship since 1995, when he took on Garry Kasparov in New York, this is the first time that he would play such a prestigious match before his own countrymen.

Anand won his maiden World title in Teheran in 2000 and has successfully defended it four times, in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Yes, he should have got a chance to defend his title at home much earlier than this, but the chess administrators of this country were not bothered about it, as he played the World championship finals in Mexico, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia.

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) could claim credit for bringing the match to India at least now. It is after all better late than never. The AICF officials have to thank the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for the role she played in getting Chennai the match.

Now it is up to the AICF to ensure that it gets the maximum out of the November match. If ever there is an opportunity to take chess to the masses of this country, this is it.

If properly marketed, chess could take off in India in a big way with the World championship. “I expect at least 500,000 new players of chess because of the World championship,” says Pravin Thipsay, one of India’s senior- most chess players. “The amount of interest that such a match generates would be huge. The AICF should ensure that the championship reaches all parts of the country, especially our schools.”

He believes the AICF could make use of the large number of Grandmasters and International Masters in India to make the game familiar to those uninitiated. “They could be roped in as commentators to explain the moves to schoolchildren and others,” Thipsay says. “The AICF has to change its mindset and include more players as administrators.”

In November all eyes of the chess world will be on Chennai. And it will be a huge media event too. Since Anand is playing, the Indian media too is sure to play it up. Chess should make the front page of our newspapers and it would also be there on the scroll of breaking news on television channels. The sport will receive the attention it deserves and that should help make India an even stronger nation in chess than it already is, as thousands of youngsters would be inspired to play the game. Just as Anand triggered, singlehandledly, a chess revolution in this country some two decades ago with his exploits.

India is ranked eighth in the world and besides Anand, there are other Indians in the top 100. Koneru Humpy is the World No. 3 and another Andhra girl, D. Harika is World No. 18 among the women. In the more competitive men’s list, Pendyala Harikrishna is ranked at 42 and Krishnan Sasikiran at 74.

These Indians hardly get to play in India, for there are no tournaments good enough for them to participate in. “Yes, the AICF should organise quality chess events in India so that our top players can compete with the best in the world,” says Thipsay. “Earlier, we used to have regular camps involving reputed trainers. I don’t know why we don’t have such camps now.”

All these years, Anand played just a handful of events in India — the World Candidates in Sanghi Nagar (Andhra) in 1994, the first part of the World championship in New Delhi in 1999 and the World Cup in 2002 in Hyderabad. He had once told this writer that he would have wanted to play more in India.

The AICF could make amends with the Chennai World championship. Why can’t there be a quality tournament involving Indian players like Humpy, Harikrishna and Sasikiran, along with some top international players, prior to the big event?

“Yes, such a tournament would be an ideal run-up to the World championship,” says Thipsay. “That is one of the ways to market a sport like chess.”

Could Chennai add more pressure to Anand?

“I hope it doesn’t,” says Thipsay. “I remember at Sanghi Nagar people used to stop him while he was walking to the venue and ask for autographs. Being such a nice man, he never refused anyone. And of course, he had lost to Gata Kamsky in that event after being in such a dominant position. Let us hope Anand will not be disturbed unduly in Chennai, though it is his hometown.”Source: http://www.sportstaronnet.com

Today is the second rest day before the final three rounds of Thessaloniki Grand Prix. It was a good moment to speak with the tournament director Theodoros Tsorbatsoglou.

Q: Mr. Tsorbatsoglou, the tournament is reaching its final phase, what are your general impressions?

A: I think it is going pretty well. If we take in consideration that we had only 10 days to prepare the event we are satisfied with the organizational results. For this we have to express our gratitude to the “Makedonia Palace” management team and “Mamalakis” audio-visual team who assisted us in any possible way under time pressure.

Q: Are you satisfied with the media interest and visits in the venue?

A: Again I will say that under time conditions we had a small miracle. The local media attention is at the extremely high level. For this of course we own to Mr. Ivan Savvidis who is becoming a prominent business personality in Northern Greece and his actions attract the media interest.

About spectators, after speaking with players & officers and adding my experience, I have the feeling that this is one of the most visited venues for such event. We have many spectators daily and on weekends it is booming. Our target is to reach 5.000 different visitors on spot in 12 days in total (including opening and closing ceremony).

In the final 3 days we expect even bigger number of visitors, naturally because this is when the tournament winner will be decided. Imagine what would have happened if we had two months to communicate the event and prepare organized visits from schools.

Q: Who are actually the people that come to the playing hall in Makedonia Palace?

A: Thessaloniki has a large chess community. About 40 active clubs with thousands of members. Moreover, we have a large number of schools in Thessaloniki and Halkdiki which have endorsed chess lessons.

But the spectators are not only from the chess community. I saw many people that are coming to see it because they have been informed from media.

We also have hotel guests and hotel staff (!) who are following the games daily. Finally, we have spectators from the football club of PAOK because these days the team is constantly staying in Makedonia Palace.

What is really nice, is that people who are watching chess event for the first time are really excited and willing to continue to watch or even more actively take part in our sport.

Q: The live commentary is very engaging.

A: Yes, we are receiving a very nice feedback for live commentary. Our idea was to make it as a live chess show with commentators and guests, even happenings. We want to make it more creative and interesting for the big mass of amateur players and not only them. We have to approach and win the people who are watching a chess event for the first time.

Q: Who do you think is going to win?

A: What is important for us is to ensure good and fair conditions for all players. And we did it. When we work for such events or we have official positions in FIDE or ECU we are obliged to have equal approach to each player. Our only expectation is a well organized and fair tournament and the player with the best performance will win.

Q: How do you see the situation in World and European chess?

A: FIDE is in very good shape today. Many events, a successful format of Grand-Prix, Candidates Tournament, many offers for the World Championship cycle. Top players have never had so many tournaments in the Calendar, of course including the private events.

Moreover, today FIDE has well organized and productive Commissions and this is an additional value in the management.

I think now we have to concentrate more to European Federation development before and after Tromso. We have the plan, we have the sources and we will do it.

Today is the second rest day before the final three rounds of Thessaloniki Grand Prix. It was a good moment to speak with the tournament director Theodoros Tsorbatsoglou.

Q: Mr. Tsorbatsoglou, the tournament is reaching its final phase, what are your general impressions?

A: I think it is going pretty well. If we take in consideration that we had only 10 days to prepare the event we are satisfied with the organizational results. For this we have to express our gratitude to the “Makedonia Palace” management team and “Mamalakis” audio-visual team who assisted us in any possible way under time pressure.

Q: Are you satisfied with the media interest and visits in the venue?

A: Again I will say that under time conditions we had a small miracle. The local media attention is at the extremely high level. For this of course we own to Mr. Ivan Savvidis who is becoming a prominent business personality in Northern Greece and his actions attract the media interest.

About spectators, after speaking with players & officers and adding my experience, I have the feeling that this is one of the most visited venues for such event. We have many spectators daily and on weekends it is booming. Our target is to reach 5.000 different visitors on spot in 12 days in total (including opening and closing ceremony).

In the final 3 days we expect even bigger number of visitors, naturally because this is when the tournament winner will be decided. Imagine what would have happened if we had two months to communicate the event and prepare organized visits from schools.

Q: Who are actually the people that come to the playing hall in Makedonia Palace?

A: Thessaloniki has a large chess community. About 40 active clubs with one thousand members. Moreover, we have a large number of schools in Thessaloniki and Halkdiki which have endorsed chess lessons.

But the spectators are not only from the chess community. I saw many people that are coming to see it because they have been informed from media.

We also have hotel guests and hotel staff (!) who are following the games daily. Finally, we have spectators from the football club of PAOK because these days the team is constantly staying in Makedonia Palace.

What is really nice, is that people who are watching chess event for the first time are really excited and willing to continue to watch or even more actively take part in our sport.

Ivan Savvidis and Theodoros Tsorbatsoglou

Q: The live commentary is very engaging.

A: Yes, we are receiving a very nice feedback for live commentary. Our idea was to make it as a live chess show with commentators and guests, even happenings. We want to make it more creative and interesting for the big mass of amateur players and not only them. We have to approach and win the people who are watching a chess event for the first time.

Q: Who do you think is going to win?

A: What is important for us is to ensure good and fair conditions for all players. And we did it. When we work for such events or we have official positions in FIDE or ECU we are obliged to have equal approach to each player. Our only expectation is a well organized and fair tournament and the best player will win.

Q: How do you see the situation in World and European chess?

A: FIDE is in very good shape today. Many events, a successful format of Grand-Prix, Candidates Tournament, many offers for the World Championship cycle. Top players have never had so many tournaments in the Calendar, of course including the private events.

Moreover, today FIDE has well organized and productive Commissions and this is an additional value in the management.

I think now we have to concentrate more to European Federation development before and after Tromso. We have the plan, we have the sources and we will do it.

On 29 May in the demonstration zone of SportAccord Convention a chess presentation took place. Its main idea was to show to the guests and participants of the Convention how the most up-to-date technologies available to everyone can be used in the one of the more ancient of mankind’s games, and how chess can connect people regardless of their location, language skills and social status. GMs Nikita Vitiugov (ELO 2733) and Maksim Matlakov (ELO 2673) took part in the presentation. They played several blitz games. WGM Irina Sudakova and FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg were the commentators of the event.

FIDE expresses its sincere gratitude to the Chess Federation of Saint Petersburg and its Vice Presidents Messrs. Vladimir Bykov and Igor Blekhtsin for their active help in the organization of FIDE’s stand and presentation at the SportAccord Convention.www.fide.com

Ding Liren showed his class with an undefeated performance where he ended up a whole point ahead of his closest followers. With five victories and four draws he was able to accumulate 7 points. In the very strong field, this was enough to get a Rating Performance of 2821 points. After the event, the winner declared that “he was very satisfied with the result” since this was his first victory in a super-tournament.

Ni Hua started dominating the tournament with four straight wins, but fell on his way to the top after losing two consecutive games in the seventh and eighth rounds. Despite these setbacks, Ni Hua finished in third place, a point behind the champion, due to his worse tiebreak score compared to Bu Xiangzhi, who took home the trophy for second place.

Another player who had a good result was Zhou Weiqi. He finished in fourth place with 5.5 points, but achieved a good set of results, performing more than a hundred points over his Elo rating. The 26-years old player only lost one game in the nine rounds – he fell against Xiu Deshun in the third day of play.

Field Set for 2013 U.S. Junior Closed ChampionshipSAINT LOUIS (May 30, 2013) — The 10-player field has been set for the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, scheduled to be held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) June 13-23. The top Juniors in the nation will meet in Saint Louis with more than $10,000 at stake and an invitation to the 2014 U.S. Championship at stake.

The Junior Closed Championship is the most prestigious tournament in the nation for the country?s top players under the age of 21. This marks the fourth consecutive year this event is being held at the CCSCSL.

Karthik Ramachandran, the winner of the 2012 U.S. Junior Open, was ineligible to play in the 2013 U.S Junior Closed due to age restrictions, so the invitation was extended to WFM Sarah Chiang, the second-place finisher. Chiang is coming off her first-ever U.S. Women?s Championship appearance, which was held in Saint Louis in May. Kayden Troff and Sam Sevian also have recent big-tournament exposure, both having acquitted themselves nicely at the 2013 U.S. Championship, also held in Saint Louis in May.

The opening ceremony and player?s meeting will take place on June 13, and the first round of play will begin at 1 p.m. CT on June 14. Grandmasters Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold will provide live play-by-play commentary for each round of the event. Spectators are welcome to watch the commentary live at the Saint Louis Chess Club or online at www.USChessChamps.com.

$ 5 entry fee – There will be no prizes this month.

4 rounds – June 4, 11, 18, 25- (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 4 rounds) Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

Tuesday Night Tournaments are held every month of the year, (except for November and December when things are organized a little differently).

There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /110 minutes [Each player has 1 hour 50 minutes to complete their moves, the game will be be 3 hours and 40 minutes maximum]

The TNTs are typically 4 round events (one game for 4 consecutive Tuesdays in the month).

Start time is 7:00 pm and the TD will confirm costs $ 5 entry fee and CFC membership required.

All players must be CFC members (can be obtained during registration on-site) [$ 20 for a one-tournament adult membership or $ 49 for 12 months- new adult members pay only $ 36 for a twelve-month CFC membership; Junior (under 20) members pay $ 10 for a one-tournament membership, $ 34 for a twelve-month CFC membership, new junior members pay only $ 24 for a twelve month CFC membership]

Registration will be cut off at 6:50 pm. (If you think you may be late, please send an email to chessmanitoba ‘at’ gmail.com) before 5 pm (you can try later, but the wireless access at the U may be problematic)

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

Easiest way to get there is to take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the old Bookstore location. Our goal is to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.